Hey guys, been a few weeks since I've been on here and this topic is more of a straight hardware and general PC advice thread but here goes:

Only a few hours ago, my main HDD in my PC failed, so I am looking for a replacement or a different storage solution. I had a WD Black 3 TB 7200 OS and main drive. I also have another internal drive, a Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 7200.

My failed drive's capacity was two-thirds used. So I am looking at acquiring the same amount of storage, if not more.

A friend has been pestering me to buy a SSD, I only have games, movies and TV shows on my computer, so I am unsure of the need.

So what I an asking here is: what are your suggestions for manufacturer of HDD/SSD and product type? Like another WD Black 3 TB or something else?

I'm with your friend, get the biggest SSD you can afford, second best is an SSHD. An SSD puts the "snap" into Steve Job's "snappy". I've got an SSD for my OS X install and an SSHD for my Windows install, they boot almost as fast as one another. This makes booting into Windblows for some game time a lot less painful. After that, booting onto an HHD will always feel toe curling slow by comparison.

I second a SSD, but a 2TB one won't be cheap, so most people use a small SSD (128 or better 256 GB, though 512 GB is becoming affordable to the common wallet) for the OS and common apps, and a HDD for storage (typically your movies, TV shows, music, photos, seldom used apps...). Best of both worlds!

For 3.5" HDDs, I prefer Toshiba then WD, last Seagate (I used to have HGST first, but since they've been bought by WD, the brand remains but is more aimed at the data centre market, though you can still find some older desktop models; whereas Toshiba has inherited former HGST factories).
I don't know really which SSD to recommend today, but I think you can't go wrong with Crucial and Samsung (their Pro models are famous but quite expensive, I have one; and EVO ones are cheaper).

1TB SSD models will probably come down in price when larger ones become more common place but 480GB to 512GB models are often on sale and even a 256GB might be enough for your OS and regularly used apps (just work out your current needs and add a bit for future expansion) - then just get a second mechanical disk for the bulk data media etc. that doesn't need the speed.

With 6 to 8TB mechanical disks now available the 3 and 4TB models are pretty cheap.

One thing is sure you will never ever want a mechanical disk for your boot drive ever again!

If you're booting off of it, get an SSD. Seriously. It will feel so much faster for about 1 week. Then it won't feel any faster at all. But if you go back to a HDD after that, you'll feel like your system is crawling. After about 3 years of operating off of SSDs, the Velociraptor in my G5 is about the only HDD left where I don't feel like I'm computing while wearing cement shoes. And even that isn't that great.

Right now, if SATA, at the top end I'd recommend Micron's M600 (slightly slower, but ridiculously huge endurance; it's the one-gen-newer version of tBC's SSD) or the Samsung 850 Pro (slightly faster, but less endurance). If you want to bring the cost down some, the Samsung 850 Evo isn't a bad option either. You get half the endurance of the 850 Pro and a minor penalty to performance, but in exchange for a significantly lower cost.

If not SATA but PCIe, Samsung 950 Pro all the way.

If you're not booting off of it and/or you need large storage, a HDD is fine. HGST's DeskStar NAS line is in a killer spot for the price:performance:reliability ratio right now. Fast, spacious, and unkillable.

A terabyte is a lot of room. I have lots of games and accumulated stuff on it and it's at halfway. If I need more room I'll store stuff long term that I don't use much on a big HHD to make room for more games

... which is my far flung prophetic vision of needing more space on the damn thing for games. I want to tip my hat to Dirtyharry's signature, if you are enjoying yourself it is not time wasted. I'm a hedonistic game junky and the other-reality adventures of games is my drug. Nothing like playing a really great game.

Any Crucial/Micron will do (I own several). Look around for a sale, sometimes you can find a really good deal on the previous generation Crucials.

I use an icy dock to slot it into 3.5" drive space but there's tons of options (OWC has some decent sleds)

On the cheap I have a seagate SSHD in a system and the 8GB NAND tacked on does really help with boot, but it's only enough to cache OS and maybe a couple applications. But damnb boot is pretty fast, and the 2GB model is a 7200rpm mechanical so it's decent enough as far as spinning rust goes. (the 4GB is 5400).

Since you already have a data drive that is still operational I'd probably go with an SSD.

One other thing to consider is that drive that is failed may still be perfectly usable. Often drives will have a weak segment on the drive or some issue that causes failing reads on a sector, especially frequently read/written sectors. Modern mechanical drives have really advanced ECC (and spare sectors) but it only is enacted on write. Usually SMART reporting a few sectors pending reallocation is indicative of this. I've cajoled many "failing" drives back to perfectly suitable life by simply zeroing a drive. This forces the drive to perform all it's internal maintenance. It's when the sector reallocation continuously increases you've got a real problem, as far as the stability of the magnetic material goes. Obviously you can still have physical damage, bad bearings, etc.... that can all cause other issues.

Thanks for your recommendations and suggestions as yet guys. My current thoughts are to buy a 250/500 GB Samsung 850 Evo and a replacement 2/3 TB HDD. I will still wait a little longer for a bit more advice.

Hopefully they're more reliable. The 8GB models have been having issues; and I mean issues to the point that NVIDIA issued a recall of some of their Shield TV units that were equipped with them to change out the drives. Ouch.

This made me look into a SSD upgrade for my iMac on OWC but for the upgrade I'd want it isn't worth it to me. The hassle of taking apart an iMac with a glued on screen isn't appealing either although I'm sure I could do it. I'm also sure it would be a pain in the rear. Even the OWC video demonstrating this neatly cuts away when the guy screws up removing the glue several times. I did not miss that little bit of video trickery.

ugghhhhhhhhh I hate cutting off the screens. And I hate reapplying the adhesive even more. There's a reason apple ships me fraking 12 sets of strips in the kit. They know I'm gunna fat finger them 3 times before I get the panel back on.